Tell me!
I-- yes.
I think--
How'd it get burned?
Very few actors rise to the level
of being an intergenerational icon.
Having a career that spans multiple decades and genres
is a pursuit that all creatives aspire to.
But Nicolas Cage?
He's done something better.
He's pushed the medium of film to the next level.
Nic Cage is the first actor to become his own genre.
I'm not me.
I'm me.
Not me.
Me.
Before we dive too deep into this episode,
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Arguably the greatest character that Nic Cage has ever created
was himself.
Nic Cage.
Born Nicolas Coppola, his father August Coppola
was a professor of literature and the brother of famed film
director Francis Ford Coppola.
Young Nicolas would eventually be bit by the entertainment
bug, and here's where we enter the first era of Cage.
Nic Coppola's first acting work was the 1981 pilot
the best of times, which unfortunately failed to get
picked up by ABC.
However, it would be the next year
that he would land a non-speaking part in Fast
Times at Ridgemont High.
While shooting his scene, he realized
that his famous family's legacy was negatively
impacting his career.
Hollywood legend has it that everyone on set
was endlessly quoting The Godfather and Apocalypse Now
to him.
You can act like a man.
What's the matter with you?
So he took matters into his own hands
and decided to change his surname
to circumvent the issue entirely.
He dubbed himself Nic Cage, his new last name
taken from the comic book character Luke Cage
that the young Nic had loved.
This was the first step toward inventing his new persona.
In quick succession, Cage landed parts
in Valley Girl, Rumble Fish and Racing with the Moon.
He had his foot in the door.
He would spend the next decade having
ups and downs in both critically acclaimed indie
pictures like Vampire's Kiss and cult classics
like Wild at Heart and critical disappointments like Fire
Birds.
But through it all, Cage proved one thing above all else.
He took the craft seriously, and most important of all,
he had something a little extra--
an unpredictable quality that set him apart from his peers.
These shining moments would appear
from time to time, smoldering embers of the brilliance
that he had in store for audiences.
Take for example the improvisational reciting
of the alphabet in Vampire's Kiss
R, S, T, U, V, W X, Y, Z!
Huh?
That's all you have to do.
Big swings like this had two effects on Cage's early career.
When they worked, they worked.
And when they failed, they failed spectacularly.
You got the wrong attitude about all this, Cyrus.
You've got to keep positive.
However, as Nic Cage continued to build
a public awareness of his persona,
he got a few solid breaks.
During the mid '90s, Nic Cage transcends.
All of the quirky choices and strange rhythms
he'd been bringing to parts paid off.
From his Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas
to his blockbuster action one two punch of The Rock and Con
Air to his campy big budget John Woo studio film--
Face off.
Nic Cage took over Hollywood.
Starting roughly in 1995 to going to about 2003,
the man just could not be stopped,
which leads us to what many thought would
be the final chapter of Cage's career.
Following a period headlining franchises
like Ghost Rider and National Treasure, Nic Cage and the IRS
had a little disagreement.
You see, around the early 2010s, word
hit the street that the beloved actor
had spent all of his $150 million fortune
and had a debt of $6.3 million owed to the IRS.
Ever heard of a line?
Hey, have you ever been dragged to the sidewalk
and beat until you pissed blood?
So what did Cage do?
He turned to direct to DVD movies and low budget schlock
to get him out of financial trouble.
Initially, this seemed like an unthinkable move for one
of the most famous people on the planet.
But Cage told a GQ interviewer "I've
got all these creditors and the IRS,
and I'm spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out
of a mental institution.
It was just all happening at once."
Let's just say that we all make choices in life,
and Cage felt he had no option but to star
in films like USS Indianapolis Men of Courage, Arsenal,
and Left Behind.
Just saying you could be a little more strategic,
make more movie star choices.
And this right here would probably
be where most people's careers would end.
They would have scuttled their legacy and reputation,
attempting to just stave off a prison sentence for back taxes.
They would be Wesley Snipes, basically.
A has been relic from a bygone era of Hollywood.
But Nic Cage did something else.
He reinvented himself yet again.
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In today's landscape, there's very little room
for making films with a distinct point of view.
The films that Nic Cage was involved with when he first
came up all the way back in the '80s just don't exist anymore.
Now that he's out of IRS work camp decision mode,
he chooses weird new things to do.
And because of his filmic ambitions,
he's drawn to unique and off kilter ideas.
Therefore Nic Cage is almost solely responsible
for an indie and arthouse film renaissance.
He's as much a patron of the arts
now as he is the vessel that which that art
is brought to the people.
Why?
If a big enough movie star is willing to sign
on the dotted line, these bizarre indie productions
actually get financing.
Films like Pig and Color out of Space
would just not be made without Cage's involvement.
Even less artistically ambitious films
like Prisoners of the Ghostland or Willy's Wonderland
just wouldn't see the light of day
without Cage being there to be like,
"yes, I will make a movie where I don't say anything
the whole time.
That sounds fun."
Mandy specifically is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
[SCREAMING]
It's an acid trip revenge movie that
features a chainsaw swordfight.
Director Panos Cosmatos was trying for years
to get the film greenlit, and he even went to Nic Cage
to play the villain.
But when Cage said he wanted to play the protagonist,
Cosmatos had no choice but to rewrite the picture in order
to gain financing.
It's Cage's unhinged energy that propels these films,
both in front of and behind the lens.
In many ways Nic Cage is the last bastion of an era in film
where original stories were told.
He's actively using his star power
to push the art he wants to see in the world.
But here's the thing.
Nic Cage is rapidly aging out of a leading man status.
So what happens when Nic Cage retires?
What stories will we have then?
Start right before life begins on the planet.
All is lifeless.
And then life-- life begins.
With organisms.
It doesn't seem likely that there's
going to be another generation of widely inventive filmmaking
mavericks who are going to take the reins of the film world
any time soon.
Most movie stars seem to have no real interest in attempting
to foster this atmosphere.
Is it possible that Nic Cage is currently
training the next generation of performers
to make risky and exciting decisions in his Las Vegas
acting dojo?
Sure.
Maybe.
But in reality, unless Nic Cage trades his likeness
to an army of AI clones in order for them
to take over Hollywood after he's dead,
we're probably screwed.
Open it!
And well, that's all we have for this episode of Nerdstalgic.
What do you think?
Are there other actors who have ostensibly
become their own genres?
Let us know in the comments below, and as always, please
like, comment, and subscribe for more Nerdstalgic videos
just like this.